David Eagleman
@davideagleman
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Neuroscientist at Stanford, NYT bestselling author, Writer/host of The Brain on PBS. Companies @Neosensory & @BrainCheck. #1 Science Podcast: Inner Cosmos.
Silicon Valley, CA
Joined February 2009
"In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule." - Friedrich Nietzsche.
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My latest documentary, THE CREATIVE BRAIN, is now available on Netflix. Based on my book with the incredible @anthonykbrandt (The Runaway Species), this film includes Tim Robbins, Michael Chabon, Grimes, Dan Weiss, Kelis, Robert Glasper, and so many others
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"He who asks a question is a fool for a minute; he who does not remains a fool forever." - Chinese Proverb.
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People you love become part of you — not just metaphorically, but physically. You absorb people into your internal model of the world. Your brain refashions itself around the expectation of their presence.
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Join me & the American Brain Foundation on Wed eve for our gala event. I'll be (virtually) presenting the Public Leadership in Neurology award to Emilia Clarke. She suffered 2 strokes & launched her own charity to fund neuro-rehab (@SameYouOrg). More info:
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What’s the best thing you can you do to protect your brain as you get older? From my interview with @TEDchris on the TED Interview.
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I love Sagan so much. For anyone who didn't get to grow up watching his clear, simple explanations, his love of human aspiration and his inspiring turn of phrase, check out the video. These slow shots where he simply speaks to the camera are the signature of a bygone time.
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Big announcement today. With producers Adam Fratto and Matt Tauber I've launched a production company in Hollywood: Cognito Entertainment. We make film and TV about science (non-fiction or fiction). Almost a dozen projects underway. Stay tuned! .
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My friend Anil Seth is one of the most authoritative voices in a central question of neuroscience: what is consciousness? His new book is a page-turner & a mind-blower. If you've ever wondered how billions of neurons chattering in the dark equate to your experience, start here.
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This is Warren Sturgis McCulloch, one of the foundational thinkers in artificial neural networks. He died long before I consumed his papers as a graduate student, and in fact even before I was born. What is so striking to me is how contemporary this clip from 1962 feels. The
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1/2: Last week I spent two days on the Game of Thrones film set in Spain. Quick pic: the smart & talented Emilia Clarke (Daenerys Targaryen)
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After ten years of writing, LIVEWIRED debuts tomorrow.
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For my friends in Turkey. .
"Oliver Sacks ve William Gibson, Carl Sagan’ın verandasında bir araya gelip yazsalar böyle olurdu dedirten bir kitap.” Wall Street Journal.@davideagleman CANLI DEVRE, Zeynep Arık Tozar çevirisiyle Temmuz başında raflarda.
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These photos are actually black and white. But the thin grid of overlaid lines makes your visual system believe otherwise. The color assimilation illusion happens bc you see a blurred version wherever the image is not in your central vision. Images by Øyvind Kolås @hodefoting.
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Brain lovers: over the years the New Yorker has published several neuro-related stories; here they collect up the best ones (including the profile piece on my research from several years ago). Good selection of articles to scratch any cerebral itch 👍
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A deep thank you to everyone who's been listening to Inner Cosmos. It's now ranked as the #9 podcast of all podcasts (5 million). I've always believed that people care about science and how it intersects with daily life. You've proven the premise correct. Sincere gratitude ~
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Brain lovers: over the years the New Yorker has published several neuro-related stories; here they collect up the best ones (including the profile piece on my research from several years ago). Good selection of articles to scratch any cerebral itch 👍.
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Why do we dream? Why do we experience a fraction of our lives hustling inside an internal, delusory picture show?.My former student @DrDonVaughn and I have worked on this problem for the last 10 years, and we just may have cracked it.
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If we meet aliens someday, how will we figure out what they're saying? .We face this problem right here at home, with 2M species & no Google Translate. Join me + my guest @aza to see how we might get to animal translation on today's new episode of Inner Cosmos.
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People you love become part of you — not just metaphorically, but physically. You absorb people into your internal model of the world. Your brain refashions itself around the expectation of their presence.
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People you love become part of you — not just metaphorically, but physically. You absorb people into your internal model of the world. Your brain refashions itself around the expectation of their presence.
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Thrilled to announce that today is publication day for our new book THE RUNAWAY SPECIES. Catch us in the US or UK:
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Jaw-dropping possibility that this *could* be the most remarkable moment that's ever transpired in our history
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The lines are not actually moving in the picture. Prove this to yourself by planting a finger on the screen. But when your motion detectors are tickled in the right way, you perceive movement. Always remember: what we assume to be reality out there ain't necessarily so.
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I snapped this picture at a construction site for a Gap store. It used to read "Bolder, Brighter". I love the fact that it now appears to assert a correlation between age and wisdom.
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A short interview in the Guardian on the evolution of the brain, the mystery of consciousness, and why the next generation will be smarter than us.
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"Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known." - Carl Sagan.
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My new book hits the shelves on Aug 25. Its concepts form the basis of my brain plasticity course at Stanford and my spin-off company @neosensory. Every new hypothesis & experimental result I've had in the past decade formed the bricks of this book. More to come soon….
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The days of thinking of time as a river are over. Time perception is a construction of the brain. http://t.co/Ar4H7O4AaK #BrainTime.
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Today Robin Williams would have been 69. But he fought an invisible battle with Lewy body dementia. This dementia is quite common (2nd to Alzheimers) but too little recognized & understood. “Everyone you meet is fighting a battle you know nothing about. Be kind. Always.”-Robin
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"Uncertainty is an uncomfortable position. But certainty is an absurd one." - Voltaire #possibilianism.
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Thrilled to announce that after years of research we are debuting our new product: the Neosensory Clarify. This is a stand-alone wristband that replaces the need for hearing aids. 1/7.
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Way to go fellow Sapiens! Wonderful progress in understanding our place in the world this past year. Can't wait to see what gets unmasked in 2018.
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I discuss in Livewired why the blind often become powerful musicians. The territory of their visual cortex gets taken over by hearing & touch, giving higher resolution to those senses. See blind 7-year-old İpek Nisa Göker play Mariage d'Amour by Paul de Senneville.
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I love my neighbor's minimization of effort in the transition from the fall to winter holidays.
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As people get older and have less energy, there's often a drive to make things more predictable. But the most important thing you can do for your brain: put it in novel situations and give it novel challenges. #Livewired.
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Appears to have been spell-checked by the new Department of Education.
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This cliff is 1 km high. It's not on earth, nor on any planet, nor on a moon. It's on comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko, photo'd by ESA's Rosetta. Altho it's a very high cliff, the tiny gravity here would make a straightforward climb and a survivable jump. #extraplanetaryCliffJumping
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By decoding signals in the motor cortex of a paralyzed person, Stanford researchers introduce 'mindwriting'.
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R.I.P. physicist Stephen Hawking, who has just died at age 76. Although trapped inside your own body, you reached out to the most extraordinary distances. .
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"In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule." - Friedrich Nietzsche.
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"In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule." - Friedrich Nietzsche.
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Last week I received a new request in the mail. A man is going to deep-freeze his body when he dies & asked me to sign my book for his re-entry into the world some centuries hence, when future scientists figure out how to revivify him. #BestSigningRequestEver
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Thought for the day: A good idea not turned into action stays confined to the tiny, poor neurons that spend all their energy on it.
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Very cool: after Game of Thrones wraps, the Three-Eyed Raven is going to study to become a neuroscientist. 🧠
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My favorite Einstein quotation:. "Never cease to stand like curious children before the great mystery into which we were born.".
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"In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule." - Friedrich Nietzsche.
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Neuroscience question: what is it about the Republican mindset that loves to elect TV/movie celebrities?.
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As people get older and have less energy, there's often a drive to make things more predictable. But the most important thing you can do for your brain is to put it in novel situations and give it novel challenges. #Livewired
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"Uncertainty is an uncomfortable position. But certainty is an absurd one." - Voltaire #possibilianism.
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Zoom's new Immersive feature. because nothing relaxes the brain as much as a trial in front of a jury.
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"As people get older and have less energy, there's often a drive to make things more predictable. But the most important thing you can do for your brain is to put it in novel situations and give it novel challenges. #Livewired"
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"He who asks a question is a fool for a minute; he who does not remains a fool forever." - Chinese Proverb.
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"Uncertainty is an uncomfortable position. But certainty is an absurd one." - Voltaire #possibilianism.
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To avoid nuclear war, make the launch decision personal & bloody (i.e. activate emotional brain regions). Also see
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Too cool. I retain hope that within our lifetimes we humans will be able to decode what our cetacean cousins are chatting about.
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My next book will hit the shelves later this year. Stay tuned. .
.@canongatebooks bags "mind-blowing" book from neuroscientist @davideagleman—more about Livewired, from the internationally bestselling author here:
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My new book THE SAFETY NET just hit the shelves. It's about the sudden advent of the internet in the context of millennia. Why did previous civilizations collapse? From pandemics to dictatorships, come see how the equations are changed by our new tech.
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"If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe." - Carl Sagan.
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"He who asks a question is a fool for a minute; he who does not remains a fool forever." - Chinese Proverb.
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Brain lovers: over the years the New Yorker has published several neuro-related stories; here they collect up the best ones (including the profile piece on my research from several years ago). Good selection of articles to scratch any cerebral itch 👍.
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As people get older and have less energy, there's often a drive to make things more predictable. But the most important thing you can do for your brain is to put it in novel situations and give it novel challenges. #Livewired.
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"The difficulty lies not in the new ideas, but in escaping the old ones, which ramify. into every corner of our minds" - John Maynard Keynes.
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"We make our world significant by the courage of our questions and the depth of our answers." - Carl Sagan.
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"If the doors of perception were cleansed everything would appear to man as it is, infinite." - William Blake.
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"We make our world significant by the courage of our questions and the depth of our answers." - Carl Sagan.
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"We make our world significant by the courage of our questions and the depth of our answers." - Carl Sagan.
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"He who asks a question is a fool for a minute; he who does not remains a fool forever." - Chinese Proverb.
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The lines are not actually moving in the picture. Prove this by planting a finger on the screen. When your motion detectors are tickled in the right way, you perceive movement. Always remember: what we assume to be reality out there ain't necessarily so.
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People you love become part of you — not just metaphorically, but physically. You absorb people into your internal model of the world. Your brain refashions itself around the expectation of their presence.
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Hello, I'm a neuroscientist in a movie. I sport a white lab coat all the time, even when my job doesn't call for it. When a detective enters my lab, I'm never in the middle of something. I lower my beaker of colorful liquid and stare at a brain scan to divine some critical clue.
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Wonderful to sit down with Tim Ferriss (@tferriss) on his podcast to discuss consciousness, sensory augmentation, dreaming, synesthesia, time, productivity, and so much more.
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"In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule." - Friedrich Nietzsche.
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"You become who you are not because of what grows in your brain, but because of what is removed" - The Brain: The Story of You.
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"The difficulty lies not in the new ideas, but in escaping the old ones, which ramify. into every corner of our minds" - John Maynard Keynes.
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"Uncertainty is an uncomfortable position. But certainty is an absurd one." - Voltaire #possibilianism.
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Ten seconds of your life that you'll never get back, but pretty wonderful nonetheless.
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"We make our world significant by the courage of our questions and the depth of our answers." - Carl Sagan.
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By decoding signals in the motor cortex of a paralyzed person, Stanford researchers introduce 'mindwriting'.
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I've been thinking about expressions that characterize previous years. Things like:."There's an app for that"."Can you hear me now?".In this year of Zoom meetings, the new expression I've said/heard daily is:."Wait - you're on mute.".What other new contenders do we have for 2020?.
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"Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known." - Carl Sagan.
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"You become who you are not because of what grows in your brain, but because of what is removed" - The Brain: The Story of You.
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"Uncertainty is an uncomfortable position. But certainty is an absurd one." - Voltaire #possibilianism.
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A once in a lifetime shot captured by photographer Sergio Tapiro, who had taken 300,000+ photos of Mount Colima over 10+ years. He was shooting on a clear night when it finally erupted. “When I saw the camera display I was shocked, I didn’t believe it.”
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"Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known." - Carl Sagan.
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Want to feed that brain? List of good documentaries playing on Netflix (including my doc "The Creative Brain").
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"Uncertainty is an uncomfortable position. But certainty is an absurd one." - Voltaire #possibilianism.
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Thought for the day: A good idea not turned into action stays confined to the tiny, poor neurons that spend all their energy on it.
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"In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule." - Friedrich Nietzsche.
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"He who asks a question is a fool for a minute; he who does not remains a fool forever." - Chinese Proverb.
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"The difficulty lies not in the new ideas, but in escaping the old ones, which ramify. into every corner of our minds" - John Maynard Keynes.
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I just noticed my books have gone from 12% on Audio in 2011 to 31% in 2021. Same narrator (me). Is this a function of lockdown (eg, no booksignings, people taking longer walks, etc) or is the appetite generally increasing through time for this mode of consumption?
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Taking a late night flight back from Los Angeles. Guess what Netflix premiere I just attended in advance of its release this Thursday?
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